Gates in Florence, Italy

As I walked down the cobblestone streets of Florence, Italy on my visit last September, I noticed there were lots of beautiful iron gates. On that trip I photographed door knockers - noting to myself that if I returned, I would take a few photos of the gates.

So on my most recent trip in May, I began to search out the gates I knew were everywhere. I only got about ten shots this time but I was surprised to notice that of the ten pics I took, each was a different gate. Considering I went down many of the same streets several times, that was lucky.

 You may only notice them if you turn your head to peer into a courtyard opening, or look beyond big wooden doors.

In any city, most of the locals can easily identify tourists by how we walk slower and how we look around a lot. That's okay with me (to be identified as a tourist) because if you don't look around you will miss so much. 

In New York City, a first-time visitor may look up a lot to see the tall buildings. I've been there many times now, so I spend more time looking left and right - catching details that would otherwise go un-noticed. One time I caught a glimpse of an amazing fountain sculpture that I would've missed had I not looked to the right down a little side street when I was in the van taking me to the airport. 

There is so much detail in the gates. Beautiful craftsmanship we do not see so much today. 

I also photographed window grates which I will post soon!

I like to look beyond the gates to see the courtyards, the gardens, 

and many times fountains and sculptures too.

Take the time to notice the details - especially if you love architecture and design! 

Dirty Little Secret

So, what is my "dirty little secret?" Well, for over 25 years I have been collecting hotel bathroom amenities: soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, shower caps, sewing kits, etc. . . I could go on, but I bet you get the idea.

Here are a few of the containers filled with my collection

It all started when my husband became and airline pilot and began flying all over the world. He would bring back the cute little bottles of shampoo for me - and I took it from there. I began bringing them home from my travels and he continued to bring them home - and before you knew it, I had a big collection that still grows to this day. Lately, I have been thinking that my obsession collection is out-of-control and I need to do something about it.

A casualty with a broken top - this makes me sad because it
one of my favorite hotel stays. The Lowe's Santa Monica Beach Hotel.

At least on my recent trip to Europe I did not bring home even one bottle of shampoo or little soap - nothing was worth it - the shampoo/conditioner came in little packets and I used the tiny soaps. And, not one hotel I stayed in even offered lotion (although one did offer toothbrushes!) After 9/11 and the new travel rules it really became difficult to bring home as many as I once did. One time I had packed a ziplock with as-many-as-would-fit of cute shampoos and conditioners and the TSA guy picked up the bag, looked at it in amazement, rolled his eyes, and threw it back in the bin and let it go through. Haha, I felt so proud of getting them through that time.

Another favorite was Disney's Grand Californian Hotel - now so expensive I doubt I will stay there again.

So, what am I to do with all of these little goodies? 

An idea would be to display my collection in the county fair next year - just for fun. . . then

1) Save the best ones - with the most memories.

2) Give a lot of them to a women's shelter (or two or three.)

3) Keep some for Olive and Lulu to play "store."

4) Use the shower caps as food covers for outdoor serving or picnics.

5) All of the above!

The Container Store had this nifty soap saver that you can put your little bits of bar soap in -  it works great. I really should never have to buy soap again if I didn't want to. I can load it up with the small bars.

Luxury items from THEhotel at Mandalay Bay

Sometimes it is the name of the product that I find appealing and sometimes it is the packaging.  I am a sucker for creative ways to wrap stuff up and some of the soaps were very nicely wrapped.  Some of the bottles are creative too. Oh, I could go on and on about this . . .

A great memory of staying at the Hotel Edgewater in Seattle, WA.

Soap patchwork - I unwrapped bars to display (and use) in a couple of glass containers

 Here I put a few of the soaps in a wide-mouth vase and used a cheese-board glass dome
 to keep them clean and display in the bathroom.

BEFORE:  just a mish-mash of little bottles.  AFTER: bars of soap ready to use. 

It Was 20 Years Ago Today . . .

Normally I keep these posts to design and food related topics, but today is a bit different. Even though there is a mention of food in the post, it goes under my label of "But I Digress."

What the property looked like before the flood of '93. You can see the white bridge out in the distance.
My son is hiding in that rain coat.

Today marks the 20^th anniversary of the flood in Fallbrook that caused us to evacuate our home in the middle of dinner. It was the evening of January 15, 1993 and it had been raining for two weeks straight. I decided to brave the rain and went out to bring home Chinese food. 

We lived on property with a creek – and the water was beginning to wash up over the bridge. The great room had a big picture window, with a view looking out towards the front yard. Our nearest neighbor was coming down his path to watch the creek rise and to check his bridge. Things were getting intense with the rain and the water was getting very high in the creek, lapping over our bridge. The neighbor suggested we move our cars to the other side of the old bridge in case it collapsed. My husband and I left our dinner on the table to move the cars (I think the kids were watching from the front porch) and just after we moved them and headed back to the house, the water came rushing into the yard. The creek actually broke its banks a bit further up on the neighbors property, so the bridges were saved, but our yard and house were beginning to flood.

Days later, our dog Sheena sits on the porch trying to decide if she really needed to go do her business. I remember wearing knee-high rubber boots for a long time when we went back and forth from the cars to the house.

It was pretty scary evacuating, as we dodged the debris floating through the yard in a strong current, to get to the cars. We had just planted over 50 bushes between our property and the neighbors with big, heavy wood stumps in-between them. Those stumps were just rollin' through the water like they were made of styrofoam. My husband had to carry our daughter through the rushing water and went back for our big dog, who was pretty scared too. We stopped by the fire station to notify them of what had happened and then continued on to a friend’s house (they lived on higher ground) for the night.

This photo is from weeks later when the water levels went down in the yard, but the creek water was still very high, touching the bottom of the sand-covered bridge.You can see how far the house is from the creek and on the night we had to evacuate, it was a long way to go through rushing water. 

The property at one time was five acres or more (much of it bought by the state to build I-15) and the state was to blame for the flooded creek because they neglected to clean the storm drains a bit further down the road.

The next day when we returned to see the damages, and noticed our take-out dinner still sitting on the table, it was a reminder of how quickly we had to leave. Every January 15th for years afterwards we had Chinese food on this date. At some point we stopped, most likely when the kids left home, but I think I will bring back the tradition and do takeout Chinese tonight.

Cleanup in progress

That spring, after most of the cleanup was complete, we decided to purchase our first home. We’d been living in the family-built home in the canyon for seven years and this was the push we needed to move-on-up. And up we did go, to one of the highest streets in town, Alta Vista Drive. The name says it all. 

What to Wear to a Winter Wedding

Thinking of what I would wear if I could wear anything.  

I would love to wear this to a winter wedding.

What to Wear to a Winter Wedding by marie-kinnaman 

Julia Child's 100th Birthday

Today, August 15, 2012 would be Julia Child's 100th Birthday. Food lovers are sharing their memories of watching her on television, or reading her cookbooks - and reminiscing on how Julia cooked and charmed her way into our hearts.  I wanted to chime in too . . .

A few years ago, The Friends of the Fallbrook Library had a wonderful guest speaker, Alex Prud'homme. He was Julia's grand-nephew and he co-authored "My Life in France" with her. I had read the book for the "community read" selection and loved it. I was excited to hear Mr. Prud'homme talk about Julia's life in postwar Paris and Marseilles.

In the book she mentions the Paris cookware shop, Dehillerin, where she bought all sorts of kitchen essentials, including copper pots and knives. I knew when I was planning my buying trip to Paris (for my now-closed shop) that I needed to visit the store to see the copper cookware section. And, I wanted to bring something home without having to have it shipped. My purchase included two of the smallest pieces of copper the store stocked - I knew they would fit in my carry-on suitcase.

My little 3 inch copper pots from Paris (they need cleaning!) 

If you enjoy Julia Child (or love to cook) and you're headed to Paris, plan a visit to her favorite cookware shop. E. Dehillerin is located at:

18 et 20, rue Coquilliere - 51, rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau - 75001 PARIS

From Rossipes, here is a French-Italian dish my mother made:

Chicken Française 

It is much easier to have everything ready before beginning. Prepare the flour mix, the egg batter, and have the sauce ingredients measured, parsley chopped and lemons sliced.

FLOUR mixture:

1 cup all-purpose flour
big pinch of salt and black pepper
pinch of garlic powder
pinch of paprika 

In a shallow dish mix together the flour, garlic powder, salt, pepper and paprika. Set aside.

EGG batter:

2 eggs, slightly beaten with a tablespoon of water
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup grated parmesan 

Have another dish ready with the egg batter: Mix the beaten eggs and juice of 1/2 lemon with 1/4 cup of grated parmesan. Set aside.

PREPARE chicken:

6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/4 cup olive oil

Pound chicken between wax paper to about 1/4 inch thick. Pat dry. Prepare skillet by heating and adding olive oil. Dredge the chicken in the flour, shake-off excess. Dip the chicken into the egg batter and add right into the hot skillet with the olive oil. Cook over medium heat until golden on each side. Remove from skillet and keep warm.

SAUCE:

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup good-quality chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped 

3-6 slices lemon, for garnish 

Wipe skillet clean and heat butter over low heat. Add wine, chicken broth, and lemon juice. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sauce is reduced. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper. Spoon sauce over chicken and top with lemon slices. 

Not a great photo, but it is the actual dish from the cookbook

Shopping Bag Collection

For many years I had a really big obsession with collecting shopping bags. I liked to keep bags from nice shops and boutiques I visited. I'd even ask my husband to bring home a bag or two from shops he went to when he flew to London or Paris. And, I am not ashamed to admit that I would sometimes purchase something very affordable just to get a bag from a certain shop. On occasion, when the sales clerk tried to give me a plain flat bag for my simple purchase, I have asked, "Could I please have a handled paper bag instead?” Sometimes there would be "a look" of disapproval - but I didn't care.

The cover of my exciting book find in london

Once on a visit to London I found a book titled, Shopping Bag Secrets. The tag line says, “The Most Irresistible Bags From The World’s Most Unique Stores.” Wow, what an exciting find for me . . .  a book about something I had been collecting. It was even more exciting to note that I had several bags listed in the book. 

Why do I like shopping bags? I can’t really remember why I started holding on to bags - maybe because of a special name (Tiffany) or a great bag shape (Takashimaya) or a beautiful design (MacKenzie and Childs.) The book states that bags are “three-dimensional, portable works of art, status symbols and phenomenal advertising vehicles.” I agree.



An early memory of wanting a bag to keep goes back thirty years or so. I lived near South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California. They created a new bag several times a year. They were always very pretty and really big. You had to pay a quarter to get a bag from the stand that dispensed them.

A few of my south coast plaza oversized bags

The great triangular shaped bag from the now-closed Takashimaya in Manhattan

Bags from a trip to Paris

One of my favorite stores in New York is ABC Carpet & Home

From the Victoria & Albert Museum in London - check out that purple interior!!

Some of my New York shopping bag collection

This bag came with its own gift tag attached from MacKenzie and Childs

Random bags

Vendor sample bags from buying trips I took for the shop I owned

More bags . . . 

My bag collection stuffed in the biggest of the bags - after photographing my bags I found another full bag of bags!!

Whatever the reason, I love shopping bags and I am not ready to even consider letting any of them go. Maybe one day in the future when my granddaughters are older, they will have fun playing “shop” with some of them. Who knows, paper shopping bags might become extinct soon . . .


For now, the really special ones will stay folded in the safety of the larger bags in the back of my closet.

Sunday Comics

We do not get the newspaper delivered these days - not even the Sunday issue, which was my favorite because the comics were in color (and it had the design features too.) 

When I taught redesign classes I included some comic strips in the manual to lighten up the serious stuff. Here is some of my collection.

 Blondie

SALLY FORTH by Greg Howard